The Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel today launched a scathing attack on Deutsche Bank as it sought legal protection from creditors.

After failing to strike a deal to cut its €9.1bn (£6.3bn) debt, Eurotunnel started legal proceedings to place itself under the protection of the commercial court of Paris.

Similar to Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy code, the new procedure allows firms a six-month breathing space to prepare a court-administered survival plan without defaulting.

Eurotunnel, which has issued warnings of possible bankruptcy, blamed the failure to reach agreement on a group of creditors led by Deutsche Bank.

These creditors have backed an alternative financial restructuring deal to the one signed in May between Eurotunnel and most of the firm's debt holders.

"Although the vast majority of these demands were satisfied by the substantial efforts made jointly by Eurotunnel and the ad hoc committee, the subordinated creditors led by Deutsche Bank rejected this final attempt to reach a negotiated agreement between all of Eurotunnel's creditors," a Eurotunnel statement said.

Jacques Gounon, the Eurotunnel chief executive, added: "I fail to understand how an institution such as Deutsche Bank has maintained its unreasonable demands without taking into account the consequences on the 2,300 employees and 800,000 shareholders of Eurotunnel."

Eurotunnel is venturing into uncharted legal territory as it is the first big company to test the new "safeguard procedure", which came into force in January.

In May, the Anglo-French operator reached a preliminary agreement to restructure its debt with its main creditors. The plan - with Goldman Sachs, Macquarie Bank, Barclays and AXA Private Equity - would have halved its debt and reduced shareholders' ownership.

But junior bondholders, led by Deutsche Bank, which are owed €2.7bn are holding out for better terms that would leave them with cash and shares in the firm.

Eurotunnel, which has enough cash to last until early next year, insists that passenger and freight shuttles as well as Eurostar trains will continue to operate as normal throughout this period.

The company has struggled from the very start from a mix of huge debts and over-optimistic traffic forecasts. Delays in the start of train services in 1994 compounded the company's problems.